Latest Library Links
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Publishers believe that Russian individuals are behind the creation of a fake book parodying a manual for resisting President Trump and other leaders. The author, Yale historian Timothy Snyder, claims the listing is the latest attack in a series of efforts by Russians to undermine his work. A nonexistent coloring book by “Timothy Strauss” appeared as a listing on Amazon.co.uk with the same title as Snyder’s On Tyranny. The blurb, “lessons to Make World Great Again,” is used on pro-Putin posters in Russia.
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Ray James writes: “ALA’s newly posted Q&A: Makerspaces, Media Labs, and Other Forums for Content Creation in Libraries could prove useful to school librarians, administrators, or boards who are considering adding a makerspace, tech lab, STEM or STEAM lab, media lab, exhibit and performance venue, or other physical and virtual spaces to their library. The Q&A emphasizes that it is not a policy template, but a source for answers to questions that are likely to be asked.”
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A new OCLC Research report, A Tour of the Research Data Management (RDM) Service Space, provides an overview of the RDM service space and sets the stage for further exploration of RDM at four universities around the world. The report is the first in a four-part series that focuses on decision-making at four institutions that have made different choices in confronting the realities of planning, developing, and deploying institutional RDM services in research universities. -
Anna Nowogrodzki writes: “Dyslexia is not just about reading, or even language. It’s about something more fundamental: How much can the brain adapt to what it has just observed? People with dyslexia typically have less brain plasticity than those without dyslexia, two recent studies have found. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Israel and MIT both found that dyslexics’ brains did not adapt as much to repeated stimuli, including spoken words, musical notes, and faces.”
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Leanna Barcelona writes: “During the course of US involvement in World War I, ALA collected $5 million in donations for the ALA Library War Service that accumulated 10 million publications and established 36 camp libraries across the United States and Europe. It was the ALA Library War Service’s mission to provide ‘a book for every man.’ It accomplished a great deal in a short time. According to the June 1918 War Library Bulletin, there were 385,310 books shipped overseas.”
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Applications are open for the Freedom to Read Foundation Banned Books Week Grants, offered through the Judith F. Krug Memorial Fund. Each year, FTRF distributes grants to non-profits to support activities that raise awareness of intellectual freedom and censorship issues during the annual Banned Books Weeks celebration (September 24–30, 2017). Libraries, schools, universities, and community organizations are encouraged to apply for grants at two levels: $1,000 and $2,500. The deadline to apply is May 12.
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The Library Services and Technology Act administered by IMLS provides critically important funding for our nation’s libraries. LSTA Grants to States appropriations are distributed directly to each state and territory through a population-based formula. Each state identifies the most appropriate uses of these funds for library services and activities to meet their state’s economic, educational, civic, and demographic needs. The return on investment for this program is substantial and is enhanced by each state’s matching contribution.
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The Art Libraries Society of North America has released the State of Art Museum Libraries 2016 white paper. The report demonstrates the current roles, issues, and challenges faced by art museum libraries in the United States. Art museum libraries provide authoritative, relevant, and timely research service to their museum constituents and the general public, and act as fundamental partners in the art museum’s educational mission.
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The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association staunchly stands against the proposed elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the Trump administration’s 2018 budget blueprint. IMLS is a core funding source for hundreds of libraries around the country and supports the library and museum professions in advancing the values of a democratic society. Without IMLS, many projects that support our members and our organizations would not have been possible.
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On March 30, the North Carolina Senate voted in favor of a bill that repealed the controversial law affecting transgender bathroom use in public buildings, part of a compromise worked out earlier in the week between Republican legislative leaders and the Democratic governor. However, it was unclear whether eventual passage of the new bill into law would extricate the state from the roiling national controversy over the proper levels of legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. And the replacement seems just as bad for LGBTQ rights as the original.
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The President has proposed eliminating virtually all federal library funding and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the agency that distributes most of it to every state in the nation. Now budget-cutters in Congress are considering whether to follow his lead. Here you will find what you need to contact your representatives to ask them to sign the two important letters, addressed to the Appropriations Committee, that are now making the rounds, one supporting LSTA and the other IAL.
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ALA and ACRL continue the fight for an open internet for all, joining eight other organizations representing over 100,000 colleges, universities, and libraries nationwide in sending a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael O’Rielly, Sens. John Thune (R-S.Dak.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and Reps. Greg Walden (R-Oreg.) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) articulating Net Neutrality Principles that should form the basis of any review of the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order.
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